Supernatural Season 12 episode recaps 9-10

Catching up people who may have forgotten the epicness before Supernatural returns from mid-season hiatus!!

From Jailbreaks to an Angel’s backstory…

The stories continue here…

Episode 9 “First Blood”

Finally the return from Winter Hiatus has come and sanity to the fandom is back. Just in case you forgot, this is also the shows 250th episode, so congrats there! How insane is that? Now let’s dig in.

We open with Sam and Dean being held in an unknown FBI prison. The Guards have separated the brothers into solitary confinement, to try and break them. With each brother in solitary, they have no one to talk to, nothing but horrible food to eat — Dean deals better with Sam in that department — and no hope of getting out. Each brother dealing with it in different ways, Dean scratching off the days with a screw on the wall and Sam works out. Gotta stay in shape for the inevitable escape right? It Flashes over to Mick Davies updating his bosses via a magic typewriter that sends reports to his bosses (uh hello fringe ripoff anyone?!). American hunters are being difficult and hard to work with apparently. The fact that he is surprised by this shocks me. Mary is berating Cas for leaving the boys behind.

Castiel tries appealing to Crowley for help and considering it doesn’t benefit him he declines. Crowley tells Cas: “Sam and Dean, they’re like herpes: Just when you think they’re gone, hello, the boys are back!” So he both doesn’t care and knows that they will eventually sort out their own mess. To pass the time, Mary gets back to hunting. The mistakes Cas made are clearly weighing on him. He passes the time by marking the time they have been missing. Currently, it’s at 6 weeks, 2 days, and 10 hours.

Transitioning back to Sam and Dean, the guards have discovered the boys apparently dead in their cells. How? Well, no freaking clue yet but I am going with a spell that involves bad food ingredients and mattress lint. All we know is that the boys are currently lying at the morgue. We come back from commercial and they are both up and gasping. They bust out and steal a phone with Dean immediately calling Cas, where of course it goes to VM. Sam steals a map, Cas answers the phone, and then it’s grab Mary and jet off to Colorado. Because, apparently finding 2 escaped fugitives walking alongside whatever highway in Colorado is a piece of cake. It doesn’t come to that as the duo runs into BMOL who offer to locate the boys using thermal imaging satellites.

Serious Chills here

FBI enforcers are out tracking the boys in the forest. But the boys are wily, take out one guard and his weapon and radio. Abandoned cabin in the woods is found and they pull a home alone. Sam takes out one agent by shooting up from under the floorboards while Dean hides outside. Eventually, Dean gets the FBI leader in a bear trap, and Sam pulls a gun on the last man standing. In the hopes that these gentlemen can actually, you know, handle the truth, Sam tells them: “The president was possessed by the devil. We saved his life.” As for who Sam and Dean are? Well, as Sam puts it, “We’re the guys who saved the world.”

They meet up with Cas and Mary and the British wankers, who do nothing but complain the boys left survivors. All appears to be well and the journey home starts. And then up pops the reason Sam and Dean even made it out. Billie, the reaper no one cared to see again, appears in front of their car. Apparently Dean in the cell cracked from solitude and called Billie and made a deal. They both got to die and come back one more time, but in exchange, come midnight, a Winchester dies permanently.

I am assuming Dean thought he would take that burden. But Mary volunteers herself and even puts a gun to her head, but before she can pull the trigger, Castiel kills Billie with an angel blade (despite the fact that Billie warned that not following through on their deal would have consequences on a “cosmic scale”). I fully believe this was a bluff by Billie because let’s face it she is just a reaper, she doesn’t have cosmic altering powers. And if she did she would have taken the boys out long ago. Cas actually delivers a very emotional speech coming from him, and it was a great character moment overall. It was a stupid deal according to him, so he broke it. The episode concludes with the BMOL killing everyone left behind, and Mary sitting down to hear them out.

Beautiful

Episode 10 “Lily Sunder Has Some Regrets”

Quite possible my favorite episode of the Season. How has it taken this long to get some Castiel backstory? And, more please writers?

Angels from Cas’ old garrison are being hunted and killed. An angry redhead in an eye patch dual wielding angel blades takes out an old friend of Cas’ in an arcade of all things. Back at the bunker Dean and Sam are bickering about finding Lucifer’s baby mama Kelly. Sam is calling him out for treating Cas with a cold shoulder since he killed Billy. Cas arrives and sasses Dean back when he starts to give him grief, which I adore. More sassy Cas forever. He informs them of the dead angels, and both are on board (even if Dean says he is there just to stop Cas from doing something stupid).

Sam is so done with Dean and Cas

Queue the awkward car ride. Cas finally explains that this mission is urgent because Benjamin wouldn’t call for help lightly. This is too much for Dean, who retorts that Benjamin probably also wouldn’t make half-cocked, knee-jerk choices. Castiel snaps that what he likes about Benjamin is that “he’s sarcastic, but he’s thoughtful and appreciative, too.” Sam looks so very uncomfortable to be caught in what clearly in no way resembles a lovers’ spat! (I mean come on already. Bromance or romance you decide).

The crime scene reveals nothing but burned wings and an angel blade that does not belong to Benjamin.Creepily The woman who left it can tell what angel touches it and she knows Cas has arrived. They leave the arcade to go meet Cas’ former commander Ishim and he wants to go alone. He snarks when Dean gives him crap that “If I plan to do anything else stupid I will let you know.“

Dean’s face, he knows he is a shit

So Cas meets up with the other 2 angels alive from his former garrison Ishim and Mirabel. They give Cas the usual grief for being the angel who caused them all to fall and lose their wings. Which is BS everyone knows it was Metatron who played him so it is getting a bit old at this point. Outside, Sam is goading Dean who is pacing around that he can’t wait and then correctly counts down the time till Dean storms in the Diner. Once inside, they hilariously cram into the booth next to Cas.

Dean annoys Ishim enough to get him to leave, where he goes to collect Mirabel and head to a safe-house. The killer has already killed Mirabel however, and sliced Ishim. Cas recognizes the human doing the killing, and we see her flash to old fashioned clothes. The Winchesters join the fray, but Lily declines to harm any humans, blinding them with angelic light before getting away in her car. And now we know her name is Lily and she has been alive since 1901.

Turns out Castiel’s garrison had been dispatched to kill a nephilim at the home of Lily. The angel Akobel comes out of his house with Lily, and Ishim chides Akobel for taking up with “a filthy animal.” But Akobel passionately defends humans. “How could anyone know them and not love them?” Nevertheless, Cas, in a female vessel, reads Akobel a death sentence for breaking their most sacred oath while another angel stabs him. This scene was a cruel reminder of just how much Cas has grown as a character since then and when he first arrived. In the present, Cas tries to tell the Winchesters he was just following orders. Even Cas knows how weak that sounds.

Again, how is Lily even alive? Ishim claims he took mercy on her, but since then, she’s made a demonic pact to keep her young, strong, and powerful. The Winchesters head out to explain to Lily that Cas is different now, so she needs to lay off. Cas heals Ishim, leaving him a bit weakened. The brothers get to the hotel and find a healed Lily and start trying to convince her to lay off. Lily drops a serious truth bomb on them. Her life’s work had been angels. One day she summoned Ishim, and he became obsessed with her. He called it love, but she had to ask Akobel to protect her from Ishim. Ishim’s response? To break her heart like she broke his by using magic to keep her powerless while he killed her daughter. “I had my daughter long before I ever laid eyes on an angel.”

Armed with this knowledge, Dean goes to warn Cas at the safe house and Sam stays with Lily. She tells Sam the only reason she was able to hunt the angels now was because they had lost their wings. She also tells him she is using Enochian magic and not a demon pact to fight. The downside being is with every use part of her soul burns away. Oh, and she also reinforces her stance as a patient strategist. She knows that Ishim will kill Dean, which will put Sam in her corner. “And for that I can wait.” Dean arrives to find a weakened Cas. He tells Cas that Lily’s daughter was human, but Ishim scoffs, “Who are you going to believe, your brother or a filthy ape?”

Sometimes I just wish Dean would use words lol

Like that was even a question. Ishim repels Dean’s attack, then whales on Cas, monologuing that he used to envy Cas for being chosen by God, but now Cas is sad, pathetic, and weak. Then he proposes to cure Cas of his human weakness by cutting it out. Which apparently means killing Dean (I mean seriously that is romance territory here). It is true though Cas fell for protecting Dean and has remained loyal since. That loyalty goes both ways, though. Dean’s drawn an angel-banishing sigil in blood, but Ishim points out that Cas might not survive banishment in his weakened state. Dean’s hand immediately drops (Dean can sacrifice himself but never his friends).

Thankfully, that’s when Lily and Sam show up. Ishim gets the upper hand until Lily removes her eye patch to reveal an occluded orb that blasts angel light and overwhelms him. “I’ll never be powerless again,” she hisses. She tries to keep him immobile while he struggles forward. But when he goes to strike a killing blow, Castiel appears behind him and stabs him in the back. 2 episodes in a row now that this has happened, and personally I am down like 4 flat tires if they want to make that a weekly thing. With Ishim dead, Dean pushes Lily to hop off the revenge train. She is unsure, and only falls on the side of stopping when Cas delivers a very heartfelt apology. And once again showing how not cold and unemotional he is. the scene had a very Kill Bill feeling to it there at the end.

Back in the bunker, Dean hands Cas a beer, which in Dean-speak means “I’m sorry I’ve been a jerk and I suck at feelings, but I appreciate what you did” At least, I think that’s what a beer means. Dean says more through his actions then his words. Sam, though, has no problem using his words to assure Cas that he’s changed for the better, and the loyalty he showed them took real strength. Castiel affirms that he doesn’t regret what he did to Billie, even if it costs him his life. He is truly a Winchester now. This whole episode was a great segue now for Cas and the Winchesters and what are they going to do about Kelly and the baby? Do they kill or do they show mercy? Like Cas says: “Let’s drink and hope we find a better way“

So, I know I have been doing 4 episode recaps but I split these next 4 into 2 different sets of recaps, because I think they are 4 of the best episodes they have done in recent history. So they deserve a little bit more love at least for me. Lily Sunder in particular had everything for me that I love. Chock full of a great plot, action, throwbacks to previous seasons, and maybe potential setups for episodes to come. (Is Sam going to try and master Enochian magic even if it costs him his soul?) I give major props to Alicia Witt for creating a strong, tragic character in Lily, who honestly I would not mind her turning up again. But, hopefully not as a soulless monster, that would suck.

Make sure to check out my other recaps as you prepare for the return of Supernatural. Also, please comment below and let me know what you think!

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